The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for the assessment
of climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of
knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. The UN General
Assembly endorsed the action by WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC.

The projected impacts and vulnerabilities for each broad region found in this section are distilled from
IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, released in 2007.